10 Grammar Rules Every Teacher Should Know

Conclusion
Ouch!—you are now inoculated against bad grammar. You understand why things are right when they’re right and wrong when they’re wrong. You can address your administrators, write letters to your students’ parents and even correct your students’ grammar mistakes without trepidation. Before you ride off into the grammatical sunset, though, you should know three things:

1. 
   All writers make mistakes—dumb ones!--all the time. Good writers are good editors; they reread and double check everything (and still miss some). Don’t expect that having learned the rules, you will automatically write correctly. It’s more practical to assume that now that you know the rules, you’ll catch yourself making mistakes more often. Consider yourself a success every time you do.
   

2. 
   This guide doesn’t cover everything. In order to beat the grammar bug for good, keep a writing manual by your side at all times. Strunk and White, St. Martin’s and a score of other works systematically present more complex and obscure rules that you will occasionally run into (like not ending a sentence with a preposition, for instance). I like to think of these books as “protection.” Practice safe text.
   

3. 
   If the axiom that you learn only 10% of what you’re taught but 90% of what you teach holds true, the best way to learn good grammar is to teach it. Go for it!
   

Self Test

Rule # 1—mark the parts of speech for each word in this sentence:

Renaissance instruments play on a different scale.

Rule # 2—identify the subject, predicate, objects and clauses in this sentence:

Without being told, we knew the answer on her mind.

Rule # 3—fill in the correct pronoun “who” or “whom” in the sentence below:

I wasn’t sure that Izzy ________ I called the night before would come.

Rule # 4—fill in the correct pronouns “he and I” or “him and me” in this sentence:

Frankie and Johnny is a song written about ________________.

Rule # 5—fill the verb form “think” or “thinks” to match its subject in the sentence below:

Students, who are a tough audience, _______________ all lessons are boring.

Rule # 6—fill in the pronoun “their” or “his or her” to match its subject in the sentence below:

Any parent who wants to meet _____________ child’s teachers should attend Open House.

Rule # 7—capitalize the correct words in this sentence:

Does the constitution insure every american the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness?

Rule # 8—add the correct () -- - ; or : to the sentence below:

The best movie this year at least for me was Casablanca I saw it for the first time on video last week.

—add the correct commas to the sentence below:

In the end my mother her sister her sister’s boyfriend and I stayed friends or did we?

Rule # 9—choose the correct word “your” or “you’re” for the blanks in this sentence:

I’m told that ____________ the smartest kid in class, and _____________ work is outstanding.

Rule # 10—choose the correct word “its” or “it’s” for the blanks in this sentence:

Leaving aside ________ obvious problems, _______ a good place to start looking.